Rings & Things Fall Supplement

I received my Fall Supplement catalog recently and there is some great new items within it's pages. Another nice thing about the catalogs are the design ideas intertwined in the pages along with the products.

Out of all the new items it was hard to choose what interested me the most. But the Alcohol Inks caught my eye. These are designed for non-porous surfaces, like metal, and glass. These look like they would be a wonderful way to add a creative touch to a piece. I'm probably going to buy the metal stamping kit I blogged about previously so these would work well with that.

The website has a handy category for September new items and October new items. What do you think looks like it would be fun to use?

Metal Stamping

This metal stamping kit over at Rings &Things is something I'm very tempted to buy. In fact it's currently sitting in my saved shopping cart, along with some stamping blanks, and sheets of metal. So of course by the time I added that along with a few other things I'm now debating about what I should buy based on the cart total. Maybe I'll take some of the blanks out, or hold off on the wire. (I really need to start selling my jewelry to help out with the bead budget - once I'm set to submit all the stuff to the state so I can charge sales tax and all that other good stuff.)

Either way the kit itself isn't that expensive, and contains just about anything one would need to get started metal stamping. Only the sheets of metal and or the stamping blanks are needed. Well, and some oxidizer if one would want to increase the contrast in a stamped piece.

I'll have to post on what I end up deciding. It would be fun to blog about learning in progress of something new like this. Or resin casting. I'm also tempted by the Resin Kit. Though I'm not sure what fumes might be involved with resin. Warm summer open window weather would be a good time to try out the resin kit.

So what new tools/techniques are anyone else thinking about trying out? Yes, I'd like this post to be more then a bunch of links to things I'm deciding on buying. Plus it's always interesting to see what others are thinking of trying.

Goodies!

Well, the order I placed Wednesday afternoon over at Rings and Things arrived in the mail today and I'm all excited. There's nothing quite like the rush of playing around with various bead and findings letting design ideas run through my head. I figured I'd post about some of the fun stuff I picked out, rather than tweeting about every last thing in my excitement. ("Cabs" and "Bezel" and such are probably unknown words to my non-bead followers on Twitter).

Of course I had to try out the Bezel Lace first. I bought the half circle one as it was a good fit for the size of the cabochons (cabs) I bought awhile ago. I cut a piece with my wire cutters, and pushed it around a cab to shape. Then I used my chain nose pliers to bend the lager circles for the back of the cab, and slightly bent the smaller ones to fit the front. I still have to wire wrap the top loops to close it, but it looks like it will be a perfect fit. It was fun to work with, and it looks really great with the cab.

I also bought some Soft Flex Trios bead stringing wire the Tranquility pack. Trios are packs of three different colors, which is nice to expand the colors I have on hand. Tranquility is various blues; tanzanite, lapis, and blue topaz. So far I've only opened the packaging on these, but it's enough to see how nice the colors are.

I also bought various beads, which I'm starting to get some design ideas. Part of me thinks it would be fun to blog about the design process as I'm working on it, then post some in progress pictures as I get to the assembly stage. But some of the beads I bought are for gifts, and contests, so I wouldn't want to ruin any surprises. Though maybe I could do something with the cab, or the glass memory-box style pendant would be cool to. I have a few ideas what to put inside it.

Because I like where I shop

Ever ask someone where they purchased a particular component of piece of art they put together and gotten a vague or non response? That's happened to me once or twice that I remember, and I find it annoying. As an artist buying components to a piece I'm working on is only the start. Where my creativity comes in is how I decide to use said components, and how well I can put that design together. It's a combination of design and craftsmanship that carries a piece of jewelry, or other handcraft. And yes, design includes choosing which components to use.

When I post my creations on my blog, or various online communities, I like to cite my sources of the materials I used. I may not always be good about naming my supplier specifically, but I like to give enough information so anyone interested could buy similar parts. Well, when it comes to my blog, I do have a blog roll feature for the blogs of the businesses I buy from. I don't like to buy into the mindset of "if they know where I got X Y and Z then they'll copy my super cool design". On the flip side I'm not naive enough to think that design copying doesn't exist either (but that's not really the topic of this post).

When it comes to the level of transparency one has about their suppliers there is a point I do want to make. When you tell people where you buy your supplies, then they can also buy from your supplier(s), increasing the sales your supplier makes. And when your supplier sells more stuff, it's better for their bottom line. I don't know about other people out there, but I'd like to see the suppliers I buy from stay in business.

And related to the topic of transparency, I am interested in helping out other artists learn new skills. I'd like to think that the jewelry I create (my style if you will) goes beyond the list of components I use. I do plan on posting some tutorials at some point here, expanding on the few tips and tricks I've posted in the past.

Note: Yes the photo is old, from earrings I made back in January. This happened to be a relevant image that I already had uploaded (lunchtime blogging). The big loops I made with wire from my local bead store (20 gauge copper), the copper bicone beads are from Rings and Things, and the topaz cracked Czech glass beads and Swarovski crystals are from Artbeads.

Storage in Progress

Last weekend I wrote about not having much luck finding a specific type of storage container for my beads. This picture shows the storage container that I'm looking for, with the smaller bead containers inside of it. I now have more beads then will fit in here which is why I was looking. (I ended up buying 2 bead storage/travel cases from Rings and Things Monday, which should be here soon).

There are three sizes of bead containers inside the storage bin, as seen in this picture. I've been buying these locally at Joanne's getting some of each size. The largest ones have 4 storage compartments, the medium have 5, and the small have 6. In general I use the smallest (6) for my seed beads, even up to size 6 seed (E) beads will fit depending on the quantity I've purchased. The medium are good for a larger quantity of seed beads along with some of the stone chips and medium beads. I have some 6 and 8mm rounds in these sizes. When buying 10mm beads the large containers work best, especially with a strand of cat's eye beads.

What is nice about these bead containers is the ability to open only the individual compartments for the beads I want to use. This is the large container here, with the pink cat's eye beads open. The other half of the container still has the lid on, which is handy to help avoid bead spills.




What one of the containers looks like with all the individual compartments separated. This is one of the medium containers with some stone chips, 8mm resin rounds, and a few random beads in the bottom one. The lid can be seen in the foreground of this photograph.

Some of the newer style of these containers come with a second lid, so that the stacks can be halved and still sealed. Which can be handy for a smaller storage space.


When I first started putting my beads in this storage system I had less supplies than I do now. I noticed that the Beadalon spools of stringing wire are a slight bit smaller in diameter then the large containers are. With the large containers being a slight bit shorter than the other containers, I could fit 2 spools of Beadalon on top of the large bead container and still close the lid on my storage bin. Though now with my larger supply I actually have my bead stringing wire in recycled plastic soup containers from the local grocery store. The soup containers are just a little wider than the Beadalon spools. I also have some Soft Flex, which those spools fit inside the backs of the Beadalon spools saving me a bit of space.


And this is my "to sort" storage bin. I've been tossing random beads and other craft supplies in here along with some other stuff. This is in addition to various plastic bags of beads and findings I have to store better. There is a finished necklace in this bin, along with a bracelet someone gave me which I need to fix the clasp on. There is also some sea glass and shells. I think the sea glass is store bought, rather than stuff I found. (Somewhere I have some pieces of sea glass I picked up from the shores of Lake Erie).

Storage Woes

Because my one bead container can hold no more of the round stack-able bead containers I decided to buy another container. As mentioned awhile back, I like the Sterilite show-off storage containers. The clips are secure, and there is one central handle in the lid for ease of carrying. Plus to their #1894 show-off is the perfect size for my bead containers height wise, with just a bit of extra room on top for a few plastic bags of purchases to be sorted.

Over the past 2 weeks I've stopped in a few different Target stores as I've been out. Each one I've had little luck finding any of the show-offs. They've had other Sterilite products in their stores, but not the specific style I'm looking for.

These are the show-offs which unfortunately the company doesn't sell directly. I've even checked Target's website, but they only have one Show-off, one to large for what I'm looking for. I even stopped over to Joann's website, which doesn't have to many show-offs either. I may have to stop in their store sometime, and can check then. I'm planning on buying more of the stack-able bead containers anyways. Rings and Things does have some of the stack-able containers, but only one size. I've found I like having the three different sizes for my different beads. Though I may add some to my cart the next time I'm buying other stuff from them. (It'll be interesting to see the threads on them, the ones I've been buying got redesigned at one point and have wider more stable threads).

Pretty much what it comes down to is when I store my beads I want something to put smaller containers in. Most of the bead storage stuff out there are the kind that the lid opens all the little bead pockets at once. Sure that's fine for some beads and findings, but I have way to many seed beads for something like that. Which is why I like the stack-able containers, only the beads I am currently using are open. Even for my larger (8 to 10mm) beads I like the stack-ables for. And it's also nice that I don't have each type of bead in it's own container flying around a bigger storage thing.

I'll say, storing my beads was so much easier when I didn't have so many.

Update 10:56 PM Eastern time
Because I'm to tired for a full new blog post. I just wanted to add that I chose two of the storage cases from Rings and Things and ordered them this afternoon. I chose ground shipping to save money over air, so it'll take longer then the usual 2 days of Priority Mail.

New Camera!

My husband and I got a new camera, to replace the previous one which is pretty much shot. The light sensor isn't functioning, and the model is old enough that Olympus doesn't carry parts to fix it anymore. That's alright, we'd gotten plenty of use out of the old camera.

To celebrate the new camera, I decided to enter the "Your Designs Rock" contest over at Rings and Things. I sketched out a design earlier this month, then ordered parts from R&T the other week. Thursday I finished the necklace and earrings and will be working on submitting the pictures to the contest. I had been tempted to enter earlier, but with the camera issue I wasn't sure.

Showing off what the new camera can do:

Now this isn't the piece I'm entering in the contest. I am going to wait to show it off until later. This necklace I made back in October with beads I bought with birthday money. The lovely agate stone I picked up from my local bead store. I also made matching earrings, which I didn't take pictures of yet.

The light wasn't the best today as it's a bit overcast, but the pictures for the contest turned out well. This particular necklace didn't do to bad considering it has quite a bit of dark purple in it. As we get more settled into the house I do want to set up a light box for my jewerly pictures to decrease my dependency on sunlight. (It's now light out when I get home from work during the week, but the sun is low enough that I'm still waiting for weekends to get decent light).

Here's a close up of the stone with the second strand above it. I used silver colored copper wire to hang the stone on and did a coil at the bottom. For this shot I hung the necklace on the display stand I made this morning. I cut apart a cardboard box then covered it with some printer paper. My contest necklace has enough little hanging pieces that it photographed better not laying flat.

The only editing I did with these images was cropping and resizing.

Gearing up for the holidays

Yes, it's that time of the year again, Christmas is fast approaching and will be upon us before we realize it. I have plans to do some shopping tomorrow, but I'm planning on making as many gifts as possible. It's more personalized when gifts are made, plus I enjoy making things. Win-win.

In anticipation of making, I did have to buy supplies. I ordered some really great beads and other findings from Artbeads Thursday after work. I just received the e-mail today that my order has shipped (I'm not the only one buying supplies for the holidays, they usually are ready to ship the next day). I also am trying out Rings and Things for the first time, and ordered a pin vise and a pair of flush wire cutters. I was impressed to find a basic pair of flush cutters that could cut 20 gauge wire for $20. I didn't have to spend to much on them.